Immy Dorse 
Well, here’s something you don’t see every day. Traditional investors in the U.S. are about to get a new, and perhaps unexpected, way to put money into two of crypto’s biggest names: XRP and Dogecoin. Financial firms Rex Shares and Osprey Funds are launching new exchange-traded products tied to these assets, set to start trading this Thursday.
It’s a different kind of setup from the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs that have been in the news. Those are structured as commodity trusts. These new funds, however, are registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. That’s a distinction that might sound like legal minutiae, but it matters. It comes with a different set of rules and, arguably, a different layer of oversight.
How The New ETFs Will Work
So how will they actually get exposure to these coins? The filing details a pretty interesting method. For the XRP fund, the plan is to invest through a special subsidiary based in the Cayman Islands. This entity will hold the actual spot XRP. The fund might also use derivatives linked to XRP’s price, but that seems like more of a backup plan than the main strategy.
The same basic model applies to the Dogecoin ETF, which will trade under the ticker $DOJE. It’s not a direct hold-the-coin-in-a-wallet situation like some might expect. This is a roundabout way to do it, but it’s a path that works within the existing regulatory framework.
Greg King, the founder and CEO of REX, framed it as a big step. He told Decrypt that offering this kind of exposure within the protections of the ’40 Act regime is something they’ve worked hard to achieve. Investors, he noted, often look to ETFs as their main access vehicles.
Not The First of Its Kind
This isn’t the first time this particular structure has been used. Rex and Osprey did the same thing for a Solana staking ETF that launched back in June. And it looks like they have even more waiting in the wings.
According to the filings, they also have the green light for products tied to TRUMP and BONK, two meme tokens on the Solana network. But there’s no launch date for those yet. Bloomberg’s ETF analyst Eric Balchunas confirmed the Thursday launch for $DOJE and the XRP fund ($XRPR), but noted the others are still on hold.
A Flood of Applications Waiting
It feels like the dam might be breaking, just a little. While these two are launching, there are reportedly over 90 other ETF applications for assets like XRP and Solana still sitting with the SEC. Some of those decisions are expected as soon as October.
Analysts have previously said that approvals for funds like these were a “near lock.” It seems that prediction is starting to come true. This provides a new, and for many, a simpler way for everyday investors to get involved with these specific cryptocurrencies, without having to navigate crypto exchanges directly. It’s a significant shift, even if the method is a bit indirect.